The room of masterpieces

Masterpiece \'==,=\ n [prob. trans. of D meesterstuk or G meisterstück] 1: a piece of work attesting to a craftsman’s professional skill and presented to his guild to qualify for admission to the rank of master <a ~ was nothing more than a graduation piece — Virgil Thomson> 2a: something done or made with extraordinary skill or brilliance: a supreme achievement <a ~ of organization — O.S.Nock> <delicious onion sandwiches are perhaps her ~ — Jane Nickerson> <a ~ of ecclesiastical statesmanship — T.S.Eliot> b: a work of art of notable excellence or brilliance: a supreme intellectual or artistic achievement <the world’s symphonic ~s> <the ~s of Elizabethan drama> <the artist may have many ~s — Encyc. Americana>; specif: an artist’s most accomplished or climactic work marking the high point of his creativity <this delay in printing what was to prove his ~ — H.S.Canby> <his ~ … scarcely fulfills one of the conditions set forth in handbooks of rhetoric — English Jour.> 3: something that is a consummate example of or embodies in superlative degree some quality or trait <~s of inept versification — Amer. Guide Series: Mich.> <his ~ of bad writing — Edmund Wilson> <a ~ of fence sitting — Amer. Guide Series: N.C.>

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. 1971, vol. II, p.1390.

Léonard de Vinci (1452-1519). 1503-1506. Portrait de Mona Lisa dite la Joconde. Huile sur bois. 77 x 53 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). 1717. L’embarquement pour Cythère. Huile sur toile. 129 x 194 cm. Collection de l’Académie. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Jan Vermeer (1632-1675). Vers 1665. La Dentellière. Huile sur bois. 24 x 21 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). 1814. La grande Odalisque. Huile sur toile. 91 x 162 cm. Musée du Louvre (acquis en 1899), Paris.

The room of masterpieces

Without a culture in which certain works are considered «masterpieces» or remarkable productions, an artistic judgement can hardly be formed; without the existence of a «taste» established by all the criticisms, no-one would have the idea to distinguish between amateur works, works of art and masterpieces.
[…] Even before the critic’s intuition, the artist was able to «be successful» with his work or to «invent» criteria due to reflections about the conditions for success or the effectiveness of art and an inner certainty concerning the challenge each work presents. The reasons for the (alleged) quality of a work – if it is good – are therefore neither fortuitous nor based purely on a personal judgement; they are already in effect in the artist’s practice, in his intimate experience during his search for formal and intellectual exemplarity. Without the external confirmation, success would not, however, have any human value.

Rainer Rochlitz. 1998. L’art au banc d’essai: esthétique et critique. Paris: Gallimard, p. 206.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). 1814. La grande Odalisque. Huile sur toile. 91 x 162 cm. Musée du Louvre (acquis en 1899), Paris.
Léonard de Vinci (1452-1519). Vers 1510. La Vierge, l’Enfant Jésus et sainte Anne. Huile sur bois. 168 x 130 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Giovani Paolo Pannini (1691-1765). 1758. Galerie des vues de la Rome antique. Huile sur toile. 231 x 303 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). 1834. Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement. Huile sur toile. 180 x 229 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

> Relativité du regard

Pierre Raetz. 1970. Sans titre 1 et 2. Technique mixte sur papier. 50 x 70 cm. Prêt de l’auteur.
Ces travaux s’inscrivent dans la mouvance de 1968 mais leur propos excède les turbulences de ce temps: leurs énoncés court-circuitent l’adhésion aveugle à l’œuvre. Entre critique distanciée et ironie, ces deux œuvres jouent de leur virtualité pour poser la question toujours ouverte de la relativité du regard. Comment la perception du regardant va-t-elle faire sens (coalescence) avec la véracité de l’œuvre ?

Pierre Raetz, Auvernier et Bâle.